Sharon, a longtime champion of settlers, said he had issued an order to begin planning for the massive relocation of 17 settlements, which is expected to cost half a billion dollars, but had set no timetable for their removal.

“I am working on the assumption that in the future, there will be no Jews in Gaza,” Sharon said.

His announcement ignited angry denunciations from his own Likud Party and triggered a parliamentary no-confidence vote that Sharon survived by only one vote.

“I am in shock,” said one Likud legislator, Yehiel Hazan, after hearing of Sharon’s relocation plan.

Some critics accused Sharon of concocting the plan to draw attention away from an ongoing bribery scandal that could lead to his indictment and removal from office.

Sharon had hinted for weeks that he would order “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinians if there is no progress toward peace along the U.S.-engineered “road map.” Last week, settler leaders reacted angrily when one of the prime minister’s top aides said he planned to dismantle three settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank. Sharon quickly denied his aide’s comments.

But yesterday, Sharon huddled with Likud members of the Knesset and said he had ordered plans to be drawn up for the removal of 7,500 settlers from 17 Gaza settlements.

Three settlements on the Gaza-Israel border would likely remain, he indicated.

Avner Shimoni, head of the Gaza settler council, said, “We are fleeing, pure and simple.”

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ridiculed Sharon’s comments. “Seventeen trailers [settlements]? What, so they can replace them with another 170?” he said. But Palestinian Cabinet member Saeb Erekat said, “If Israel wants to leave Gaza . . . no Palestinian will stand in his way.”

Sharon said he would present an outline of his plan to President Bush when he next visits the White House, probably this month. The Bush administration had previously urged Sharon to take no “unilateral” steps and act only after negotiations with the Palestinians.

But yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said it was “encouraging that Israel is considering bold steps to reduce tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Sharon’s deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said he expected Sharon to begin removing settlements by mid-2004 if there is no progress in negotiations. Peace talks have been in limbo for nearly three years. Sharon told the newspaper Haaretz that the “evacuation – sorry, relocation – of settlements” would be aa huge undertaking. “It’s not a quick matter, especially if it’s done under fire.”

With Post Wire Services

GAZA STRIPPED

* Between 7,000 and 8,000 Israelis live in 20 fortified settlements among 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, a coastal strip measuring 139 square miles.

* Under a 1993 interim peace deal, Palestinians won self-rule over 79 percent of Gaza. Israel retained control of the rest.

* The first Gaza settlement, Kfar Darom, was founded in 1970 as what Israel’s then left-wing government called a strategic buffer against any future hostilities with Egypt.